Roberto Mancini, the Manchester City manager, has guided the club to Cup glory
as the Italian forges a team worthy of dining at the top table of European
football.

How will 2011 be remembered at Manchester City? After 35 years of suffering without a trophy, the dam burst with the FA Cup victory against Stoke City and it was all topped off by an unforgettable 6-1 derby win against Manchester United at Old Trafford.

For Manchester City, 2011 was pretty much the perfect year. All of the above, plus an FA Cup semi-final win against United and top spot in the Premier League at Christmas.

The lows, such as losing to Wayne Rooney’s overhead kick in last season’s derby or elimination at the Champions League group stages, will ultimately go down as footnotes to a glorious 12 months, which many City supporters hope, and believe, will be the start of something spectacular.

While many will point to the mammoth investment of owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, which broke the £1 billion barrier with the August purchase of Samir Nasri from Arsenal, much of the credit rests with manager Roberto Mancini.

Many managers have had money before and failed to use it wisely – Mark Hughes failed to take full advantage of Sheikh Mansour’s generosity – but Mancini has invested well and brought professionalism and a winning mentality to the Etihad Stadium.

Under Mancini, City are now a recognised force, both at home and in Europe. The Champions League was a disappointment, but expect this season’s group stage exit to be a rare blip, a faltering first step ahead of greater success in the future.

Off the field, City’s growth was reflected in the £400m stadium renaming and shirt sponsorship deal with Etihad Airways and, while Uefa will investigate the deal to ensure it does not contravene Financial Fair Play regulations, the club are confident of further growth commercially.

That will be needed, too. Losses of almost £195m have set alarm bells ringing in terms of FFP, but efforts are being made to make the club self-sufficient and City are confident they will ultimately comply with Uefa’s regulations.

But that is a challenge City face off the pitch. On it, they are making giant strides and they could yet march all the way to the Premier League title.

Highlights

• Winning the FA Cup and ending 35 years of hurt and goading from United supporters

• Beating United 6-1 in Manchester’s demolition derby

• Mario Balotelli – on and off the pitch!

Lowlights

• Failing to qualify for the Champions League knockout stages

• Reporting record losses of £194.9m

• The ongoing Carlos Tévez saga

• Garry Cook’s resignation over an email cancer slur

Hero: Roberto Mancini 2011 has been a year of heroes at Manchester City, but Mancini has put it all together and made it happen.

The Italian manager has bought well, discarded overpaid and underperforming players and won the club’s first trophy since the 1970s.

Manchester United might be on City’s coat-tails in the title race and the old rivals will clash in a seismic FA Cup third round tie next month, but there is now a real sense that City are the team to beat and, with nobody remotely capable of competing with the club financially, it will take something remarkable for them to be stopped.

City now have a top-class manager and the best squad in the Premier League. In David Silva, they have a leading candidate for Footballer of the Year and Mancini’s team are rightly considered favourites win the league for the first time since 1968.

If there is a blot on the landscape, it comes in the form of Uefa’s Financial Fair Play regulations and City face a real challenge to comply with FFP before the deadline arrives in 2015.

By that stage, however, City could be the dominant force in England and a genuine contender for Champions League honours.

If they become the big-hitter that many expect them to be by 2015, don’t expect Uefa to flex their muscles too much.